Conferred God: Started from Swallowing the Heaven-Repairing Stone

Although the prehistoric world underwent tremendous changes, the human race did not experience any major upheavals, and the Shang Dynasty was still destroyed by the Zhou Dynasty.

The key to the war between Shang and Zhou lies in the Battle of Tongtianze. If the Jie Sect wins this battle, it can defy fate and allow the Shang Dynasty to continue its existence.

If they cannot win, the Shang Dynasty will inevitably be replaced by the Zhou Dynasty.

Did the Jie Sect win this battle? No, they neither won nor lost. Because in the later stages of the great battle, the situation was completely out of control, and everyone's energy was focused on protecting the prehistoric world. Who had time to care about the conflict between the Shang and Zhou dynasties?

Therefore, the Battle of Tongtianze ended in a rather muddled manner. The conflict between the Shang and Zhou states was thus forced to a halt.

At that time, the primordial world was about to be destroyed, and all living beings had to be moved away to avoid dying tragically in the cataclysm that destroyed the world.

Against this backdrop, the Shang and Zhou kingdoms, which were engaged in a great battle, had no time to react before they were all taken away by human experts to escape the calamity.

This conflict between the Shang and Zhou dynasties thus appeared somewhat anticlimactic, ending unexpectedly before a winner could be determined.

But this doesn't change anything, because from this point on, the downfall of the Shang Dynasty and its replacement by the Zhou Dynasty was inevitable.

The one who ultimately destroyed the Shang Dynasty was never the Zhou state, but rather a backlash against humanity.

Previously, Ao Bing and the Jie Sect had stood in the way, forcefully suppressing the backlash of humanity against the Shang Dynasty, thus preventing it from heading towards destruction.

However, with the changes in the prehistoric world, Ao Bing and the Tongtian Sect Leader focused their main efforts on stabilizing the prehistoric world, and naturally had no time to worry about the Shang Dynasty.

In this way, without their suppression, the accumulated humanitarian backlash that had been building up for years erupted, directly leading the already precarious Shang Dynasty to its demise.

Specifically, as the primordial world stabilized again, the powerful human race used their great supernatural abilities to restore everything to its original state, allowing the Shang and Zhou kingdoms to continue their decisive battle and determine the victor.

The Shang and Zhou states shared a common origin and both wielded considerable power within the human race.

Therefore, faced with their conflict, the human race's leadership couldn't easily take sides. The best option was to remain neutral and let them fight it out.

Restoring everything to its original state is to ensure fairness and avoid giving anyone cause for criticism.

Normally, although the Shang Dynasty only has Chaoge left, this city is the elite of the Shang Dynasty, with more than half of its powerful people and resources concentrated here.

In addition, Chaoge City possesses a powerful weapon bestowed by Ao Bing. Therefore, even though it is just an isolated city, it will not be an easy task for the four great marquises to take it down; they will have to pay a heavy price.

However, even the strongest fortress cannot withstand internal problems. The downfall of the Shang Dynasty was due to internal issues, which rendered many of its strategies ineffective.

Under the influence of the backlash against humanity, high-ranking officials of the Shang Dynasty successively rebelled, including several of Emperor Xin's sons. They secretly colluded with the Zhou army from within and without, quietly opening the city gates and allowing them to enter the city.

With this in mind, how could Chaoge City not fall? Although Emperor Xin still had the palace to defend, the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that there was no way to reverse the situation.

In the end, left with no other choice, Emperor Xin committed suicide by self-immolation.

After Emperor Xin's death, the Shang Dynasty's fate was sealed, and it was destroyed by the combined forces of the four great marquises, officially exiting the stage of history.

According to the agreement made by the four marquises, whoever entered Chaoge first would become king. Chaoge was captured by the Zhou army, so the new Marquis of Zhou, Ji Fa, was recommended by the other marquises to become the new ruler of the world, establish the Zhou Dynasty, and replace the Shang Dynasty.

After the new dynasty was established, it would certainly bestow titles and honors upon its meritorious officials in order to stabilize public sentiment.

Compared to the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty made some progress, but it only improved the system; it still implemented the enfeoffment system.

The difference is that although the Shang Dynasty also had a feudal system, it did not have a fixed capital and would move its capital every once in a while.

But the Zhou state was different. In order to demonstrate that his rule was ordained by Heaven, Ji Fa built the central capital Luoyang near the Luo River.

Zhongdu, the center of the world!
Luoyang was the center of the world. The fiefdoms of the feudal lords radiated outwards from Luoyang, like a series of guards protecting the capital.

This strategy drew upon the Shang Dynasty's long history of warfare with foreign tribes, establishing the capital at the center of the land and having the surrounding vassal states as protectors. In this way, if foreign tribes wanted to attack Luoyang, they would first have to eliminate the surrounding vassal states.

In short, the Zhou Dynasty's enfeoffment system was a way to use the feudal lords in all directions as a shield to firmly protect the security of the Zhou Dynasty.

Unlike the Shang Dynasty, which used the feudal lords of the four directions as its sword,

This led to endless domestic wars, forcing the government to lead troops to quell rebellions everywhere, which consumed a great deal of national strength.

Luoyang is located in the center of the world, the core of the original Nine Provinces, and the center of the Southern Great Realm, where resources are the most abundant.

With Luoyang at its center, surrounded by fragments of land of varying sizes, this is the unique feature of the Southern Great Boundary.

Unlike the other three realms, when the human race created the Southern Realm, they did not melt the collected fragments of the primordial world into a continent, but left it in a broken state.

Therefore, if one looks at the Southern Great Realm from the outside, one can see that this realm is not a single entity, but rather composed of fragmented worlds.

The so-called enfeoffment of feudal lords by the Zhou state was the distribution of this fragmented world to feudal lords as their fiefdoms.

It sounds good, but in reality, it's not a good thing. These fragmented worlds are not pleasant places, even though they do have abundant resources.

However, the fragmented worlds appeared much earlier than the world divided them up among the feudal lords. This "earlier" is at least tens of thousands of years earlier.

Tens of thousands of years is enough time for many changes to occur. For example, these fragmented worlds could give birth to life and gradually grow stronger.

In other words, the land granted by the Zhou state was not their actual controlled territory, but rather a vast expanse of undeveloped wilderness.

The so-called enfeoffment was actually the emperor giving the feudal lords a title, allowing them to lead their troops to conquer the territory, live and multiply there, and incidentally educate the local natives.

This approach easily leads to a problem: if you manage to capture the territory, it will naturally be yours.

If you can't conquer it, sorry, that's because you're incompetent. Don't blame the emperor; he won't give you another fiefdom because of that.

Your descendants will just stay here. Either you conquer this territory, or you all die here and another lord takes over.

The Zhou dynasty's enfeoffment system was truly absurd. While nominally an enfeoffment, it was essentially a way to send lords out to cultivate new lands for them. This served two purposes: firstly, it weakened the lords' power; secondly, it allowed the Zhou to expand its own territory and thus strengthen its own state.

These were all ideas of the Duke of Zhou. It can only be said that he truly deserves to be called the legendary Sage and the founder of the Chinese ritual system; his wisdom far surpasses that of ordinary people.

Originally, Zhou Guo's actions had nothing to do with Ao Bing. The reason why the human race designed the Southern Great Realm in this way, preventing it from becoming a unified whole, was to prepare for the future, hoping to cultivate a new human emperor through the unification of the Southern Great Realm.

Did he really think the Holy Emperor of the Human Race didn't know that a centralized system was far superior to a feudal system? Ao Bing had been implementing centralized power in the Dragon Kingdom for so many years, and the benefits of it had long been thoroughly studied by others.

The powerful human race certainly couldn't be unaware of this, but despite their knowledge, they still steadfastly promoted the feudal system among the human race.

The reason is simple: to deliberately create a situation of division so that it will be easier to unify the country in the future and create a single emperor.

Ao Bing understood all this, but he also knew that this matter had nothing to do with him. The position of emperor had already been decided internally, and there was no other candidate besides Emperor Yu.

If Yu the Great wasn't the predetermined successor, Ao Bing might have also vied for the throne. But if Yu the Great was the chosen one, then there was no need for him to fight for it.

The matter should have ended there. The Holy Emperors of the human race had already made all the necessary arrangements, and it had little to do with Ao Bing.

But the appearance of the demon race changed everything. For example, the feudal system was related to Ao Bing's plan.

Ao Bing's plan is to pass on advanced wisdom to accelerate the growth of the human race. But how to pass on this wisdom, and to whom, is a question worth discussing.

Previously, we needed to discuss this, but now it's unnecessary. When the emperor enfeoffs the feudal lords, he can also distribute this advanced knowledge along with the feudal lords, allowing them to take it to their fiefdoms and study it in peace.

Due to various factors, the strength of the feudal lords will inevitably change over time; some will become stronger and some will become weaker. This is unavoidable.

The advanced knowledge passed down to them would undoubtedly accelerate this process. Those feudal lords who thoroughly studied the inherited knowledge would certainly develop faster than those who didn't.

In this way, the weaker lords would be swallowed up by the stronger ones. And through the swallowing up of the weaker lords, the stronger lords would undoubtedly become even stronger.

This forces them to engage in involution; if they don't want to perish, they have no choice but to engage in frantic involution and strive to improve themselves.

In the end, all the feudal states will disappear, leaving only a powerful empire that unifies the world.

This empire will inevitably be the new pinnacle of humanity. The enlightenment of all people that Ao Bing and the Holy Emperors hoped for, to enlighten them and enable everyone to generate the light of wisdom, will all be accomplished by this empire.

Under the protection of this empire, the threat posed by the demon race to humanity will be minimized. In this way, everything Ao Bing told Xi Huang will be accomplished.

As for how the empire will develop and how to avoid destruction, that's a new question that future generations will have to figure out for themselves.

Ao Bing isn't a nanny; he can't possibly arrange everything for his descendants. He just needs to fulfill his responsibilities.

…………

"I understand what you mean. Treat this advanced knowledge as a reward and bestow it upon the feudal lords. Then tell them about the dangers of the demon race, and that this advanced knowledge is the weapon that can help them resist the demon invasion."

"If you don't want to be destroyed in the upcoming demon invasion, you have to find a way to learn this knowledge to strengthen yourself."

Xi Huang understood Ao Bing's meaning. Since they had already been enfeoffed, they should do it thoroughly, not only giving them territory but also knowledge.

Therefore, the feudal lords who did not want to fall behind, much less perish, had no choice but to do everything they could to become stronger. They didn't necessarily have to become the strongest, but they had to be stronger than the surrounding feudal states.

Otherwise, if the surrounding vassal states become stronger and we do not become stronger as well, the consequences are predictable. Even if we are not annexed, we will suffer oppression.

This was an open conspiracy, blatantly forcing them to compete. Although the feudal lords could see through it, they had no choice but to fall for it, because they could not resist the allure of advanced knowledge.

Since they couldn't refuse, they could only follow Ao Bing's wishes and fall into a frenzied infighting. Until all the vassal states disappeared, leaving only the strongest one.

Humanity will become stronger and more powerful because of their competition.

Xi Huang had to admit that although Ao Bing's method was radical, it did make the human race stronger many times faster than their plan.

Although doing so will create many unnecessary hidden dangers, these dangers are nothing compared to the impending great calamity of the demon race.

For humanity at this moment, finding a way to stop the threat of the demons is the most important thing. Everything else can be postponed.

"Can!"

"Just do as you say."

"It's a pity that your path to becoming a human-dragon has too high a threshold. If everyone could transform into a human-dragon, why would my human race have to fear the demon race?"

Xi Huang first nodded, agreeing with Ao Bing's suggestion, then sighed when he thought of the current situation of the human race.

The biggest problem for humanity is that there are too many mediocre people. If everyone were a dragon among men, what would we have to fear from the demon race?
The demons dare to come, but they are merely resources for the demons to grow stronger; they cannot harm the demons in the slightest.

Unfortunately, although there is a method in the world to transform humans into dragons, and everyone can learn it, it is easy to get started but difficult to master.

Out of a million people, it would be quite an achievement if even one person successfully transformed into a dragon.

"Xi Huang need not worry. Our wisdom is limited, but the combined wisdom of all the gods of the primordial world is infinite."

"Once the gods of the primordial world have cultivated to the level of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, they will surely try every means to spread their teachings in order to collect their fortune."

"When spreading the teachings in the primordial world, one cannot bypass the human race no matter what. Therefore, regardless of their inner thoughts, they will ultimately spread the teachings to the human race."

"The Dao transmitted by the Primordial Golden Immortal is never simple. Even if mortals do not achieve anything by learning it, they can still enhance their wisdom and make the demons dare not approach easily."

"So what I mean is that when the gods of the primordial world are preparing to spread their teachings to the human race, the Holy Emperor should not step in to stop them, but let them spread their teachings."

"Admittedly, this move will cause the human race to lose a lot of fortune, but it will enhance the overall strength of the human race, so it is not a loss and can be called a win-win move."

After thinking for a moment, Ao Bing explained his plans. The human race was currently in the early Zhou Dynasty, seemingly stable, but in reality, the seeds of internal strife had already been sown, and the advanced knowledge that Ao Bing had passed on was the cause.

Once some of the vassal states have mastered this advanced knowledge, their ambitions will inevitably swell, and they will desire to seize power from the Zhou dynasty. In that case, the world will naturally descend into chaos.

Then, the Zhou Dynasty would decline from its peak, entering the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. And speaking of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, how could we forget the Hundred Schools of Thought? (End of Chapter)